Camera choice?

Yorkie1

My ancient Fuji is going to need replacement. Budget probably about £150. What I'm looking for in a camera is:

• good point and click ability, as my photography skills are rather limited.
• quick load / reload times. Yesterday I was trying to take pictures of low flying WW2 planes and by the time the camera had reacted to the button being pressed, the plane was halfway out of shot!
• ability to deal with bright light. I take quite a lot of outdoor photos and don't like washed out / indistinct photos.
• battery life. The Fuji has AA batteries which don't last very well - but at least you can carry replacements. I'm slightly wary of chargeable batteries - how reliable are they / how many piccies will they take / do you have to buy a second battery if you have a built-in one?
• decent macro.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Happy to buy from amazon if I can at least try the camera out locally first.

paddyrg

How about an SLR? It would cover most of your points, even a lowish-end one.

johnmc

Take a look at the Fuji refurb shop
http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/refurbished-digital-cameras?price=3%2C50

A._Badger

The lag effect you write about is common to all compact digitals, I'm afraid.

I usually take an SLR with me if I think I'm going to be doing some serious shooting but there's no doubt that lugging a bag full of lenses is tiring and inconvenient, so I have a small pocket camera for 'just in case' events.

In that category, yesterday I took a brand new Canon SX240 out for its first run. It has a great spec, takes good pictures but, oh dear, the post-click lag is dreadful - even with a Class 10 SD card inside!

As it happens, the event I went to had a few planes doing acrobatics and it was pretty hopeless - and that's a top model from one of the best two or three makers!

Compacts also lack optical viewfnders and however good the makers claim rear screen LCDs are, they are still next to useless in bright light - especially with subjects like aircraft, or fast-moving vehicles.

In the end, there's no easy answer to your question. No digital compact will be quick enough for you and none of them has very good battery life (another consequence of the large screens they all have now).

My advice would be to buy a low-cost SLR (Canon, Nikon or Pentax would be my choice) with a good, wide-ranging zoom. If you don't want to learn how to drive it, just stick it on the Programme or Auto setting and put up with with the weight and size.

If all you wanted to was take pictures of your kids of just grab the odd lucky shot here or there, a compact would do fine, but it sounds like you need more than that.

Hope that helps.

Yorkie1

Many thanks for your comments, all.

I hadn't thought about an SLR - most of my photography is just of my allotment (in sunlight!) and friends. There's very little fast stuff; it's just that I got very frustrated with my ancient camera yesterday when I was taking what I felt to be not unusual photos.

I had been wondering initially about the Panasonic Lumix FS35 which has had relatively good reviews for a compact. I suspect that an SLR may be out of my budget for what are, at the end of the day, relatively low level photography - but I amy be wrong. Where should I start looking?

LincolnshireYokel

Makes you pine for the good old Yashicamat 6x6 TLR and 120 roll film.

whats the camera of choice for the Papparazzi these days?

A._Badger

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I had been wondering initially about the Panasonic Lumix FS35 which has had relatively good reviews for a compact. I suspect that an SLR may be out of my budget for what are, at the end of the day, relatively low level photography - but I amy be wrong. Where should I start looking?

I just checked and Amazon has that Panasonic for under £100 so, no, you're not going to get an SLR for that.

To be frank, I'm not sure what to advise. All the cameras in your price range are likely to suffer from the speed issue you worry about, as well as from poor rear screen visibility in strong light and, to some degree, limited battery life.

If you can put up with the first two, you can get round the battery life problem by buying a replacement battery at a fairer price than the camera makers charge from a third party supplier. But avoid Chinese no-brand batteries. Get one of the known brands via a good retailer who will stand by it (Amazon, would by my choice). It never hurts to have a spare, anyway.

Panasonic and Canon seem to lead that market at present, though I've seen good results from Olympus, Pentax and Fuji models, too. That Lumix looks like it would be a cracker, if that's any help - it's a really fine range of cameras. subject only to the obvious limitations of that style of camera generally.,

Norman_Castle

I use an old Lumix FX8. Switch on to picture taken in four seconds. Once on and focused their is no noticeable lag. A friends newer Fuji is noticably and annoyingly slower.
My previous camera used AA batteries, this one uses its own rechargeable battery. Battery life is much better than AA rechargeables and using the supplied charger will recharge from 100% empty in two hours or top up from 2/3 empty in about an hour.
This is my second Lumix. When it needs replacing I will happily buy another.

chippy2u

I have had the Fuji Finepix S4000 for about 8 months now and I find it brilliant. With a 30x optical zoom, 24mm wide angle lens and 14mp its every thing I need for a variety of pictures.Simple to use on auto, or manual if you want a bit more control. I use 2900mAh Ni-Mh rechargeable batteries (camera takes 4). I always carry a spare set although I must admit that I have never checked how long a set lasts for, so battery life can't be that much of a problem, and no worries about remembering to charge the cameras battery before leaving home.

Yorkie1

Thanks all. I can see I've got some reviews to go and read, and then down to Jessops to handle some of these!

wba31

For point and shoot camera's I always liked Sony's offerings, always worked well, my last one (4 years old) is currently being used a lot by my wife and it's great. My mother has a canon point and shoot that takes some stunning photos.
I'm not sure a DSLR is what you want if you only want to spend £150